Massachusetts Judge Reprimanded for Helping Illegal-alien Felon Escape Courtroom

The far-left judge who helped an illegal alien escape arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in her courtroom in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, last year isn’t the only jurist who thinks putting a dangerous illegal alien back on the streets is a good idea.

Another one is Judge Shelley M. Joseph. On September 10, the Massachusetts Supreme Court reprimanded her for doing what Hannah Dugan did in Milwaukee.

Joseph, who sat on the Newton District Court, permitted a dangerous illegal to waltz out of her courtroom to escape ICE agents.

The punishment: A slap on the wrist.

ICE With a Detainer

Joseph’s legal troubles began on April 2, 2018, as The New American reported when federal prosecutors charged the illegal-alien-loving judge the following year.

Newton Police collared a twice-deported Dominican illegal alien, Oscar Manuel Peguero, and charged him with narcotics possession and being a fugitive. ICE issued a detainer and warrant of removal. Cops transferred Peguero to the Newton District Court that day and sent along the detainer.

At 9:30 that morning, a plainclothes ICE agent went to the court to take Peguero into custody after his release. “The officer announced his presence to courthouse personnel, including Joseph, upon arrival,” prosecutors alleged, and “prior to the afternoon session, the courtroom clerk — at Joseph’s direction — allegedly instructed the ICE officer to leave the courtroom and wait outside in the lobby, stating that in the event that the defendant was released, it would be through the courtroom and into the lobby.”

Plotting an Escape

A few minutes before 3 p.m., said prosecutors, the court’s audio recorder “captured Joseph, the defense attorney and the ADA speaking at sidebar about the defendant and the ICE detainer. Joseph then allegedly ordered the courtroom clerk to go off the record for a moment.’”

The Boston Globe’s account of the hearing divulged what Peguero’s attorney said in the sidebar before the recorder shut off: “ICE will pick him up if he walks out the front door. But I think the best thing for us to do is clear the fugitive issue and release him on a personal, and hope that he can avoid ICE…. That’s the best I can do.”

Replied the judge: “ICE is going to get him. What if we continue [the case]?”

After the hearing, Wesley MacGregor, a trial court officer, “escorted the defendant, his attorney and an interpreter downstairs to the lockup and used his security access card to open the rear sally-port exit and release the defendant at 3:01 p.m,” prosecutors alleged.

ICE caught Peguero on April 19, 2018. An immigration judge released him on bond that May and ordered him to show up for court in July 2019.

On April 25, 2019, prosecutors charged Joseph with conspiracy to obstruct justice, aiding and abetting obstruction of justice, and aiding and abetting obstruction of a federal proceeding. As the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) noted in its release on the reprimand, Joe Biden’s pro-illegal-alien administration dropped the charges in 2022.

DHS did not divulge whether Peguero has been deported again. It did recount his infamous career as a border-jumping felon:

Peguero first illegally entered the United States through Boston Logan International Airport in January 2003, falsely claiming to be a U.S. citizen. He was arrested and deported on January 31, 2003. He then illegally re-entered the United States — a felony — through New Mexico in April 2007. He was arrested by the U.S. Border Patrol and deported a second time on June 22, 2007. He then illegally entered the United States for a THIRD time at an unknown date and location.

Reprimand

So Joseph, who might well have trespassed 8 U.S Code 1324, skated on the very serious charges she faced.

Yet she still had a problem ahead with state judicial authorities.

On December 2, 2024, formal charges against Joseph landed in front of the state’s Supreme Judicial Court.

Having reprised the case against Joseph, and using Peguero’s alias — Jose Medina-Perez — the court’s commission on judicial conduct reprimanded Joseph on September 10. That was eight years after what was obviously an unprosecuted crime.

“The respondent is publicly reprimanded for her statements and conduct during a sidebar discussion on April 2, 2018, regarding the presence of an ICE officer and counsel’s concern that the officer would take Medina-Perez into custody,” the commission ruled:

The respondent’s statements during that conversation, including her proposal to detain Medina-Perez overnight in State custody, and her conduct in instructing the clerk to turn off the court room audio recording system, created an appearance of impropriety in violation of her duties under rule 1.2. The respondent is also publicly reprimanded for [instructing] the clerk to turn off the court room audio recording system during Medina-Perez’s arraignment, in violation of her duty.

Joseph is a judge in good standing on Boston’s Municipal Court, so the reprimand amounts to no punishment.

Milwaukee’s Dugan was forced off the bench and convicted of obstruction for helping an illegal alien escape arrest by ICE.